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By Andualem Sisay - Capital
16 May, 2007
Holland Car Company told Capital that it is planning to assemble a new car that uses autogas, sometimes called Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), instead of benzene.
“When we compare cars that use LPG with those that use petrol it reduces the air-pollution caused by benzene cars to about 75 per cent,” says Tadesse Tessema, Operations manager of Holland Car plc.
“In the context of the current price in Europe’s, LPG is 300 per cent cheaper than the price of benzene while LPG consumption of a car increases only 10 per cent. That means when one buys one liter of benzene for six birr and drives 10 kms, another person who buys one liter of LPG with two birr can drive nine kms. That is with 10 per cent consumption increase and with six birr of LPG he/she can drive 27 kms,” he says.
In some countries, LPG has been used since the 1940s as an alternative fuel for spark ignition engines. More recently, it has also been used in diesel engines. LPG is a mixture of hydrocarbon gases used as a fuel in heating appliances and vehicles, and increasingly replacing chlorofluorocarbons as an aerosol propellant and a refrigerant to reduce damage to the ozone layers.
Recently, in Europe and other countries governments and environmentalists encourage the use of LPG for cars next to solar instead of benzene and other oils that cause more damage to the environment. LPG is manufactured during the refining of crude oil, or extracted from oil or gas streams as they emerge from the ground
LPG is synthesized by refining petroleum and natural gas. It was first produced in 1910 by Dr. Walter Snelling, and the first commercial products appeared in 1912. In the United States, it currently provides about 3% of the energy consumed.
Currently, Holland Car Company is assembling one model, DOCC (Dutch Overseas Car Company). This vehicle has been built since the seventies and in the last years by Tofas, a Turkish automotive producer. The company is assembling cars in Ethiopia for both local distribution and export.
Holland Car parts from Tofas to ship to Djibouti and thereafter to Modjo by road-transport. Holland Car PLC was established in 2005 and is a joint equal shares venture between the Dutch company Trento Engineering BV in Sittard and Ethiopian company Ethio-Holland plc.
This cooperation combines the expertise of production equipment and processes (Trento) and the knowledge of the local market (Ethio-Holland). Holland Car is located in Modjo (production) and in Addis Ababa (sales and after sales service). The production-site of 20.000 square meters is situated in Modjo, about 65 km south of Addis Ababa.